


Tricky Treat

by Lorem_Yipsum



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, M/M, Misunderstandings, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 06:33:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5446724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lorem_Yipsum/pseuds/Lorem_Yipsum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seungcheol and Joshua spend the night of Halloween together. After they decide to meddle with forces beyond their control, things get weird. Soon the boys struggle for Jeonghan's attention. And then there's this Jihoon guy who keeps giving them a hard time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Summoning the Devil

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't get my AO3 account in time to crosspost this here, but ultimately it makes no sense to wait a year to post it, even though it's a halloween fic. Who knows what the boys are doing one year from now? Enjoy it regardless of the season.

Seungcheol was lighting more candles. His entire house smelled of sugar and pumpkin spice. Music throughout the living room was Halloween-themed, but mellow rather than spooky. The mood was almost romantic. If only somebody more romanceable than Joshua was present he could work his charm…

It wasn’t like Seungcheol to follow a younger boy’s orders but for one night a year he was willing to indulge his friend. Joshua was – to state it bluntly - a slut for Halloween. Portraying the ideal Christian gentleman all year long, Joshua Hong had dyed his hair pumpkin-orange for the 31st of October.

Seungcheol looked heart wrenchingly adorable with his rabbit ears and he knew it. Joshua on the other hand had picked the red devil horns from the pile of instant-costume-head-bands. It was certainly an odd choice but Seungcheol considered it quite fitting for the moment.

“That’s all the candles I have. Anything more I need to do? Or anything else I need to light on fire?”

“Nope,” Joshua said without looking up from his phone. “Just getting ready to start the ritual. Memorizing some Latin.”

While the older boy looked with mild disinterest upon the weird findings Joshua kept making on Tumblr, he knew that it was futile to talk the boy out of scrolling through the website every free minute of his day – and night. He hadn’t really expected his two-men-Halloween party to run its course Tumblr-free, but Joshua could have made an effort to keep it to a minimum. After all, it was one of the younger boy’s favorite occasions, allegedly.

But no, worse yet, Joshua had found this “really cool summoning ritual” they had to try. Honestly, this boy was so lame sometimes. Not that Seungcheol had anything better prepared, but playing games and waiting for snotty kids to knock on his door would certainly have been more relaxing than hunting ingredients for some dumb Tumblr-post all around his house. Ugh.

As Joshua finally put his phone down, the snarky remarks queued up on Seungcheol’s tongue. No pentagrams? Do I spill the goat blood already? What would Jesus think? What if we wake up Cthulhu instead?

He swallowed his sarcasm down easily. One look into the warm, gently glistening eyes of his friend was enough to remind him how much genuine enthusiasm Joshua could put into his lame ideas. He couldn’t help but smile right back.

“Alright, Joshie. I’m sure the spooky magic expert of… what was the URL again? Never mind, I can’t keep up with you kids’ anime references.”

“Hey now!“

“So this ceremony is going to find the perfect boyfriend?”

Joshua scooted over to make room on the sofa. “That’s what it said. We’ll see how it happens. Will he just appear in the room with thunder and lightning? Who knows?”

Seungcheol couldn’t keep a chuckle down. “Thunder and lightning probably not. The sky’s gonna be clear the whole night if the weather report is to be trusted.”

The boy on his sofa seemed so honestly excited, it was difficult not to get drawn into the enthusiasm.

Right between them, there was a mountain of candy on the table.

Most of it was chocolate and it was meant for any children trick-or-treating, but Joshua had claimed all of it the minute he had come over. Seungcheol had already put the Twix aside for him, but greedy Josh didn’t seem to think that was enough. They would see how hard his resolution stood once tiny costumed creatures begged for sugary food.

The currently rabbit eared boy dropped onto the sofa and leaned back, listening to Joshua’s chanting. Not speaking any Latin left Seungcheol in the dark. Words like “amor”, “eros” and “invito” meant nothing to him. Maybe they weren’t even real words. Since when was Tumblr a trustworthy source?

The quietly incantating boy finished his magic spell and took a deep breath. He looked to the side to meet Seungcheol’s eyes. What did Josh expect? Had he really thought a little Halloween joke would summon the perfect boyfriend instantaneously?

Seungcheol jumped at the sound of… thunder and lightning? No, it was merely his doorbell. Still, his heart had skipped a beat.

He got up and noticed Joshua’s gaze following him. The devil horned boy had his eyes wide open like when he was taking one of his terrible selfies. What was he anticipating?

Seungcheol opened the door forcefully, determined to put an end to this weird magic stuff. They would spend the rest of the night playing video games and eating candy. He had indulged his orange haired friend long enough.

On the stairs was a row of odd beings, barely a meter and a half tall each. “Trick or treat!”

“Oh my,” Seungcheol exclaimed, playing the part of a good Halloween-spirited adult. “What a scary ghost you are. And a super spooky skeleton, and a pirate and a… table?”

“I’m a severed head  _on_  a table.”

“Right… Well, let me just grab the candy bowl. Get your bags ready for-“

Joshua joined him in the door frame, holding a bowl full of tubes of-

“Toothpaste? Josh, where did you-?”

“This is much better for kids. Here, have some waxed floss, too.”

The little ghost seemed skeptical and looked into his bag where Joshua had dropped the dental hygiene supplies. “Um, Mister? Do you have any chocolate, maybe?”

“Sorry, fresh out. Brush two times a day.”

“Joshua, no!” Seungcheol struggled to push the boy back into the house. “What are you doing? You can buy your own candy whenever you want. Just give these kids their- …Stop pouting right now.”

“But… chocolate.”

“Ugh, fine. Keep the chocolate, but give the rest. Candy corn and bubblegum and whatever that stuff is. I bought these with my own money, you know. Because I assumed there’d be children who would get some of it. You know? As is custom? On Halloween? Which you’re an expert on?”

“I bought the toothpaste with my own money, too.”

“That’s it. I’m giving the Twix away. Ouch… Let go of my arm!”

Successfully wrestling spooky-themed confection from his friend’s grip, Seungcheol dragged his candy and both of them back to the doorframe. A fifth character had joined the others waiting for the confection.

“Oh, aren’t you most adorable,” said Seungcheol to the newcomer while distributing the gleefully received chocolate. “A great Minion costume. You’re so sweet, you tiny little bug.”

“I’m a grown man,” said the Minion with murder in his eyes. He had strawberry pink colored hair that didn’t fit the costume and was probably how he kept his hair normally. “I’m the adult supervision for these rascals.”

Feeling the heat of blush rising into his face, Seungcheol wished Joshua would save him from this embarrassment, rather than hide behind the door to muffle his chuckles.

“Sorry. Very sorry. Oh, well, you’re still adorab- I mean, that’s still a nice costume and-“

“It’s a yellow shirt.”

“B-but that round eye mask is-“

“Those are my real glasses. I need those to see.”

Seungcheol swallowed hard, his hand still hovering in front of the grown man’s face, holding several bars of anything but Twix. He realized that the adult supervisor didn’t have a bag of his own and slowly lowered his arm, feeling a bit stupid and very threatened. Who knew someone so childlike could have an aura so nefandous? Had they summoned a dreadful creature of the night after all?

His rabbit ears wiggled in the rhythm of the shiver running down his spine.

It didn’t take long for the pink haired boy to drag his child companions along to the next house. The duo was left alone and with just a single look silently agreed to never mention this incident again.


	2. Walking the Plank

Several rounds of racing along virtual tracks later, Seungcheol left his companion alone to walk around the room and put away all those candles that had gone out already.

He couldn’t help but sigh to himself.

Joshua paused, unwrapped bar in hand. “Hyung, anything the matter?”

“I just… It’s stupid, but I thought about…”

“Yes?”

“Don’t get me wrong. I love you and you’re great company, but I feel there are more exciting ways to spend Halloween.”

“I thought you didn’t like this day much?”

Munching small bites, Joshua stared at his friend. They both had changes into new “costumes”, Joshua being a plant with a green sprout on his head – adding to his pumpkin-esque appearance, and Seungcheol having donned a cat-ear-headband.

Seungcheol stared into the flame of his biggest candle. “Admittedly, you’re the spook-enthusiast between us, but I keep thinking about the others. Little Chan and Hansol trick-or-treating out there.”

“We’re a bit old for that. I’d love to go, but I’d feel a little weird.”

“Right, but Meanie couple is doing their own thing, too.”

“Why do we even call them that?”

“I just hope they stay out of trouble. Did you see how many toilet paper rolls Wonwoo was carrying? Anyway, it’s like I’m getting into the spirit of things but a little too late. You don’t think you have a ritual for that?”

“I can see if anyone’s posted something on Tumb-“

“No!”

The doorbell rang again.

“Ooh, let me,” yelled Joshua, rising from the sofa. “The next batch of kids. I’m gonna scare them.”

“But no toothpaste.”

“Why not? Their parents will appreciate it.”

“It’s embarrassing. This is my house. I’ll be the toothpaste-man to the entire neighborhood.”

“I can try, though.”

“No toothpaste.”

“Fine.”

The little one’s outside barely reacted to Joshua’s “scare” as he hid behind the door while opening it. Probably because he revealed Seungcheol standing in the middle of his living room. When Joshua jumped out and yelled, he earned nothing more than eye rolls. Maybe he wasn’t exactly the first adult who had tried his best at fearsomeness that night.

Dropping sweet stuff – but very little of his hoarded chocolate – into bags, gave Seungcheol time to rearrange the pumpkins into more prominent positions. Because he thought he had carved them quite well and they deserved exposure, but also because he had absolutely nothing better to do.

Joshua closed the door and put his bowls down. He hadn’t managed to get rid of any of his hygiene articles. Seungcheol figured they wouldn’t run out of toothpaste for a good year after this. What a silly thought. Who ran out of toothpaste? You had to be some kind of complete idiot for that.

“Hey, look here!”

Joshua gesture outside, door reopened. Seungcheol followed his friend to the stairs and saw what he was pointing at. A stuffed animal was laying in the dry grass next to his front entrance. He took a step outside. A parrot? Not a real one, though. Hadn’t that been part of the little pirates costume? The one who came with the scary pink haired boy?

Debating whether this was an elaborate prank, a stupid prank, or merely an accident, the boys plopped the fluffy bird on the table right next to a Jack-O’Lantern, held up by a bag of candy corn on either side.

“Should we keep it and wait for them to come back?” Seungcheol reasoned out loud. “If the boy dropped it, he probably doesn’t remember where so they might have to go to too many houses. But if we just leave it outside for them to see someone else might take it. And I don’t know how to find out who- Josh! Are you on Tumblr again?”

“You know what?”

“I know you should put that phone away!”

“We did that ritual wrong. I just reread it and it says-“

“How does that relate to our current problem?”

“Isn’t our lack of boyfriends a permanent problem?”

“And one we’re not going to solve tonight. Focus on the parrot please.”

“Actually, this is perfect. We can use the parrot to channel the spirits into the room. Like... an animal sacrifice.”

“You think a mighty demon from the beyond would be very happy popping up in a brightly colored plushie? Seriously, you need to get your head out of- …Stop pouting right now! Again!”

It wasn’t difficult since all the not burned out candles were still in place. Seungcheol held his controller ready to unpause the game the moment Joshua was done with his Latin blabbering. The parrot looked upon the scene with glistening button eyes.

A few more rounds of racing rainbow road later the boys took a break, both to give their fingers a rest and to get away from the self-service candy stock pile they had too liberally taken from. They had to leave some for the kids that might still come. Seungcheol didn’t want to risk getting his house or garden ruined by some angry preschooler.

Joshua now wore googly eyes on springs, hovering above his head and Seungcheol had put on alien antennae. As much as it annoyed him that Soonyoung kept forgetting theater stuff at his house, he was glad to have a use for it at last.

Once more the doorbell rang.

Joshua made no effort to stand up. “I wonder if that’s the parrot crew, searching for their feathery member lost at sea.”

“Let’s hope not. If the boyfriend ritual got the scary strawberry-mop boy back to me, I’m suing Tumblr.”

With a smile on his face, Seungcheol opened the door. The sight made him lower his arm so that the bowl of candy lost much of its content before he recovered.

“Hello, I’m Jeonghan.”

“H-H-Hello?”

The stranger was an angel. There was a fuzzy halo on his head and… That was it. Unless one counted the plain white shirt that was the entire costume.

But the celestial being was ethereally gorgeous regardless. Seungcheol fully expected to see wings unfold right from the long haired boy’s back. His gracefully falling blond strains of hair framed his angular jawed, but otherwise effeminate, flawless face. The warm eyes and twisting smirk gave him the expression of a benign royal, examining his lowly subjects. Or – to stick to the present theme – an agent of the heavens, who wasn’t here to judge the simple minded mortals but found it a bit difficult not to.

“My nephew lost his cuddly toy somewhere on this street. You haven’t see it, or anything? It’s a parrot.”

“Who is it?” yelled Joshua, apparently unable to look up from his phone to see for himself.

Seungcheol swung his head back and forth between the divine creature at his door step and the old, lazy friend on the sofa. “P-parrot! Yes, here, much... parrot... found... we… toothpaste?”


	3. Did It Hurt When You Fell

The angel grabbed the offered tube intuitively, before even realizing what he had received. “Thanks, I guess?”

Seungcheol kicked his brain back into gears. “Um, I mean you can have chocolate too, just come in.”

“No, I’m really just here to look for- Oh!”

“Yes, parrot,” the house owner said dumbly, pointing behind him as he couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes off his new guest.

Blinking heavily, Seungcheol got his act together for the moment. “Just come on in. We treated him well, I promise.”

“As far as I remember he’s actually a girl. I forgot her name, though. Well, I’ll just grab it and be on my way.”

Jeonghan entered. As he walked through the door, Seungcheol caught a whiff of his shampoo – or was it perfume? The smell was hard to put into words but he needed to smell it more. Not immediately, not when his eyes were still busy taking in all the angel’s grace, but sometime, he would really like to take a closer sniff. Was that weird? Yeah okay, but was it  _too_  weird?

And more to the point was it likely?

“Hello, I’m Jeonghan.”

Joshua, finally looking up, said “Hey, I’m Joshuglrgn. Hi. Hello. I’m uh, Joshua.”

Seungcheol could tell right away that Joshua was smitten. The wide eyed look, the words stuck in his throat, the heavy swallow, the frozen posture, the thoughts running in circles… They usually didn’t crush on the same boys. This was bad.

Maybe they shouldn’t have summoned boyfriend material for two in one ritual? No, what was he thinking, this had nothing to do with magic. This was a spooky yet delightful coincidence.

After pushing the candy corn bags aside, Jeonghan snatched the fake bird from its position, visibly a bit unsure if he should just be on his way out or make polite conversation.

Joshua’s eyes glistened in the candle light, their warm, alluring charm amplified by the romantic atmosphere. “Aren’t you a little old to go trick-or-treating? But never mind, just grab a Twi- Oh, maybe not a Twix, they’re… um, reserved. How about candy corn?”

“I’m just here for this,” Jeonghan said, holding up the successfully collected stuffed animal.

“Aren’t you a little old for that, too?”

They both chuckled at that, while Seungcheol still stood at the door, unable to close it since he didn’t want to make Jeonghan think he was getting trapped, but also unable to step away since an open door at night is a relatively bad idea.

“So,” said Joshua nonchalantly, “Too old for chocolate? I hope not?”

“Thanks but the other guy already offered me some toothpaste.”

“Ha, yeah, can you believe that? Seungcheol does the silliest things.”

The door holder was quietly seething. They were having a laugh at his expanse and if he corrected Joshua he would look like a jealous jerk. Calling your friend a liar makes for a terrible first impression.

Meanwhile Joshua turned his charms up to eleven. “Alright. Jeonghan, was it? Time for a quick duel? You pick the track.”

“I guess…”

“The pirate kid will survive without a feathery visual aid. Maybe even lose it again. Come on.”

Damn, Josh was unexpectedly smooth. This was a side of him, Seungcheol hadn’t known existed. If he wanted to break them apart he had to enter strong.

What was he thinking? Drive a wedge between his friend and his crush? This was going to end badly. But… the angel looked so… how to describe it? Tempting? Appetizing? Edible??? Seungcheol wanted to play some with his hair.

He shut the door quietly and exchanged his headdress at the pile.

With devil horns framing his skull, he plopped down on the sofa, just on the other side of his guest. “Look, Jeonghan, we’re matching costume! By the way, this is my house so if you need anything, ask me.”

Perfect. If Joshua mentioned that this costume had been his just an hour ago he’d look like the jerk this time. Additionally house ownership established a certain kind of dominance. This was going well.

All three boys held a controller each and sat on the edge of their seats, Jeonghan flanked by the boys who sat as close to him as possible without coming off as creepy.

The doorbell rang, voices of little children outside.

“Seungcheol, aren’t you gonna get that?”

“No, it’s your turn again. I opened for our heavenly guest.”

Even more perfect. And he had flat out worked in a veiled complement.

Joshua was out of the way and since starting a game without him was a clear jerk-move Jeonghan would have no other choice but to engage in a minute of conversation. Seungcheol wanted nothing more than to be the first one to make him laugh out loud.

“Do you live in the neighborhood, Jeonghan?”

“A few blocks down. My friend Jihoon has been taking the kids from the block around all night long.”

“He must really love Halloween.”

“Not really.”

“Working with children, then?”

“Nope.”

“Then why does he do it?”

Jeonghan leaned in, conspiratorially. Seungcheol took the opportunity to breathe a little more deeply, hoping it wasn’t notable.

The angel said “He waits until people recognize his makeshift Minion costume and then tells them it’s just normal clothes to make them feel like idiots.”

Seungcheol’s face contorted in pain. That… that evil, malicious, cruel-

The sound of Jeonghan’s laughter took him by surprise. Was that a fake laugh? It sounded so oddly monotonous. A success regardless! His embarrassed visage had accomplished the goal. He would ram that little punk Jihoon into the ground next time he saw him, though.

Joshua returned with slightly less candy and exactly as much toothpaste as before. Much earlier than Seungcheol would have liked.

By the looks of it, Joshua had heard the angel’s laughter since he “accidentally” kicked Seungcheol’s shins as he walked back to his seat, sitting down slightly closer to the new guest than good etiquette allowed.

Jeonghan messaged his nephew about the location of his stuffed toy and the games begun. Seungcheol picked Diddy Kong, Josh picked Toad and the newcomer in the house chose Princess Peach.

They all failed miserably against the AI, owing to their constant, playful shuffling on the sofa. Both boys on the outside tried to get as many “coincidental” touches as possible, hitting their leg against Jeonghan’s, brushing their arms together, and even patting his shoulders. If the blond boy noticed the ongoing rivalry he didn’t let them know.

Seungcheol wanted to see Joshua happy. He really wanted to. And he felt terrible for trying to outdo his friend. But truthfully… he wanted to see himself happy, too.

At long last the game came to an end with all of them making up the bottom ranks. But it had been a laugh.

“So,” said Seungcheol, his eyes fixed onto the fuzzy guest’s halo. “Did it hurt when you f-“

“Lame!” Jeonghan whipped his head around, looking expectantly at Joshua. So he  _had_  noticed the rivalry. And he was enjoying himself. What a player.

Josh, who had lost his headdress by now, barely missed a beat. “Um, I brought my guitar. I was going to practice maybe, but I can play us a ditty.”

Dang, he was good. What could be more romantic? …Right!

“You do that,” Seungcheol said, getting back some of the angel's attention. “And while you unpack your instrument, I’ll put the cookie dough in the oven. Totally forgot I had that. Its pumpkin flavored. Can I enlist your help, Jeonghan? You don’t mind, right?”

With a mean grin on his lips, the host led his guest into the kitchen, leaving Joshua in the dust. He felt bad for knocking his long time bestie to the ground like that, but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do when a guitar player is stealing his crush.


	4. Flaring Up

Using spoons, the duo of devil and angel tore slabs of dough from the bowl and smacked it onto baking pan liner paper. Jeonghan wiped some off his spoon and ate it raw.

“Oh, it’s good.”

Seungcheol beamed with joy. “Well, I sure hope so. I made it myself and I’m a pretty good head of household I dare say. I could probably raise a dozen kids.”

Why was he saying such dumb and unreasonable things? A dozen kids. Who would ever do that?

“That’s ambitious. Can you really handle it? You’re only a little scoop of raw dough yourself.”

“I’m not just a scoop of dough. If anything I’m a whole bowl. Or at least multiple scoops.”

Seungcheol cringed at his own words. Who would call themselves “scoops”? This long haired boy in his kitchen was turning him brainless. But at least all batches were prepared now.

He shoved the first pan into the oven and set a ten minute timer. Strangely glad to escape the sole focus of Jeonghan’s attention, he hushed the boy back into the living room were soft instrumental strumming had replaced the ambient background music.

Joshua had unpacked his instrument and was twisting the tuning pegs. Not only had he prepared his instrument, but also been to the bathroom apparently. His hair was fluffed up and fell perfectly. Seungcheol knew exactly what product the boy had used, because this was  _his_  house and it had been  _his_  product.

There wasn’t anything that could stop the angel from taking a seat and bobbing his foot to the tunes, so Seungcheol kept standing in the kitchen doorframe hoping not to look awkward and tried not to scrunch his face into a look of displeasure. He reminded himself that his friend – his best friend – was simply trying to entertain his guest and that he had no right to Jeonghan’s sole attention. But his hands tingled with anticipation, as if he had to snatch the blond boy away from danger any second now.

Jeonghan himself looked perfectly relaxed, his eyes sometimes closed, sometimes dashing over Joshua’s figure. But always fixed in the direction of the musician.

For ten excruciating minutes the eldest boy in the room was torn between trying to keep calm and trying to find a way to break up the situation. He wanted this night to be a good experience for everybody, but Jeonghan just looked so pretty…

Seungcheol entertained the thought of simply kicking Josh out at the next opportunity, but Jeonghan would probably have left as well if he did that.

At long last the kitchen called him back and he took out the first batch of cookies, where after the other batch entered the oven.

If there was something he liked about the whole Halloween thing it was the fall themed flavorings and candy decorations. The rest he could do without. He didn’t need an excuse to watch a- Wait! That was the perfect solution.

Carrying a bowl of warm, soft cookies, just crunchy around the edge, Seungcheol came back into the living room with a grin.

“You know what’s weird, Joshie?”

The guitar player turned to him. “What?”

“It’s Halloween but we haven’t watched a single horror movie yet!”

“Um, I don’t think…uh.”

Seungcheol felt a dizzying pang of guilt. Joshua liked horror movies. Now the boy had to weight between keeping impressing his crush with music skills or watching a movie he liked. Seungcheol felt like he was scheming against his beloved friend.

Getting Jeonghan on board was a matter of seconds and all three were back on the sofa, eyes on the screen. They quickly agree on a classic: The Thing.

It was hard to focus on the motion picture when Jeonghan’s hand was right there, almost begging to be held. At least some shoulder contact was possible. Seungcheol scooted closer and closer with every minute of the movie. But so did Joshua.

Slowly munching his cookie, Jeonghan didn’t seem to notice how he was becoming the center of a silent struggle. He simply looked straight ahead and occasionally shifted his legs to – perhaps accidentally, perhaps on purpose – touch the legs of one of his hosts.

Twenty minutes into the movie, Joshua sniffed the air. His eyes were squished as if he had trouble remembering something he urgently needed to know. Just as the characters on screen made a suspicious discovery and ominous music set in he said “Seung? Did you leave anything in the oven?”

Now Seungcheol could smell it too. He had forgotten to turn the timer on again. The cookies had been in for twice as long as they should. Smoke was coming faintly from under the door.

He bolted to the kitchen, Joshua right behind him. Bursting through the door, the boy behind crashing into the one in front. Everything was smoky.

While Joshua ripped open a window, Seungcheol pulled his little fire extinguisher from its corner. Using a backing glove, he opened the oven door, to reveal tiny piles of crispy ash. At least there was no fire.

Coughing and with burning eyes, the boys agreed to wait for the smoke to dissipate out into the night.

They returned to an empty living room.

As the protagonists of the movie were gathering around their strange find and agreed to begin the autopsy, both boys couldn’t hide the disappointment on their face. Angel and parrot were gone.

But there was a note. Jeonghan had torn a piece form Seungcheol’s calendar, and out it on the table. The duo bent over it and read the note in the flickering light of candles and screen.

 

_Sorry I couldn’t stay. Family called._

_Was nice meeting you, Scoops._

_Josh, call me ;)_

_-Angel_

 

A number was scribbled below the note. Joshua pocketed the paper. He didn’t say anything but he smiled so wide the corners of his mouth would probably start to hurt.

Defeat. That was all Seungcheol felt.

Actually he felt a lot more, but decided that hitting Joshua wasn’t going to help. It might make him feel better, but it wouldn’t help. He quenched his anger with cookies – the unburned kind.

When Kurt Russel was fired up the flamethrower to incinerate a pile of flesh, Seungcheol had almost forgotten – or distracted himself from – his loss. If Joshua and Jeonghan started dating he would probably see more of them together and he wasn’t prepared to think about that. Not tonight.

The doorbell rang. Seungcheol had forgotten whose turn it was but Joshua didn’t make a move so he got up and readied the candy. And the toothpaste, because he might as well try.

After filling up children’s bags with sweets, he remained by the door. Wistfully staring out on the street he tried to assess how to handle the situation. Could he ask Joshua to keep it low-key with Jeonghan? How much did the angel mean to his friend? More than to him? Just a few hours and he had grown weirdly attached to the boy.

Finally closing the door, he still wasn’t ready to rejoin the movie watching activity. Instead he stared out the window and pitied himself.

Then the devil led an army into his front garden.


	5. Fin

At first, all Seungcheol saw were costumed kids, just like all the other one’s strolling along the walkway. But these four didn’t carry bags half full of candy.

Toilet paper rolls went over trees, were caught or picked up and thrown anew.

And because the universe loves to kick those that are down, the quartet of troublemakers randomly selected his property needed more Halloween spirit.

Normally he wouldn’t yell at children. To his memory he had never done so before. Especially over something so simple as paper strips that could be picked up in five minutes. But there was a lot of anger in Seungcheol’s stomach.

“Hey!” he yelled as soon as he ripped the door open. Half running, half jumping he made it down the few stairs.

“What do you think you’re doing, little brats? You’ll clean all that up, right now! I’ll kick you into the sun and tell your parents, in that order. I’m gonna-“

Close enough to make out details in the light from his house and the street lamps he saw a ghost, a skeleton, a pirate – with parrot! – and a kid wearing tablecloth below the neck. Weren’t those…?

The boy with hair like strawberry flavored shaved ice cream came bolting from across the road. He, too was yelling at the kids but much less coherently and with a vocabulary Seungcheol wouldn’t have used I front of the little one’s even with all the pent up rage coming through.

What had been his name? Ah, right.

“Jihoon!”

Pink hair boy turned to him, not a trace of rememberance on his face.

Seungcheol tried again. “You are Jihoon, right? Jeonghan’s friend. The Minion. And don’t you dare tell me that isn’t a costume, you malicious, mean spirited, disgusting little punk.”

“Oh,” Jihoon said, his voice still loud, but calmer now. “You’re scoops-guy, then! Listen, I lost control over these rascals but we’ll just leave-“

In any other case Seungcheol would have liked to be left alone and said his goodbyes. But today, this moment, he needed someone to yell at.

“Shut up. You’ve got to be kidding me. All I wanted was a nice evening and you come along and teepee my house and you make me feel like an idiot even though that’s really a costume and you act all smart and you never stop being on Tumblr when I talk to you and you stole my boyfriend!”

As he took a breath to continue he realized that this wasn’t the boy he wanted to yell at. Not that he wanted to yell at Joshua either, he just really had thought he might have a shot at being less lonely after tonight.

Jihoon looked a lot less threatening than the first time they had met. Seungcheol wasn’t particularly tall but with his face reddened from anger and the light from his house giving him an ominous aura, he practically loomed over the boy.

“S-sorry?” Jihoon said, his shoulders pulled up and his arms unconsciously crossing. He was pouting, but not the irritating way Joshua did on purpose. This was the pout of a boy how felt really, really bad and wanted someone to make him feel better.

Keeping his breath deep, Seungcheol got his mind to slow down. He saw four little kids close to tears from being near the scary, shouty man.

“I… I just need a cookie. I think we all need a cookie. Actually,” he turned to the children, “There’s an orange haired boy inside. I’m think he needs some paper rolls to his face. …Not  _too_  hard, okay?”

The group looked at their leader Jihoon, who in turn showed no sign of relaxing. Seungcheol didn’t understand anymore why he had thought of this boy as a cruel menace, when he was clearly just a fun loving sweetheart who had gone a bit too far. Maybe it was the pouting, but… he was kind of cute, even.

“Care to come in for a second?” Seungcheol tried to sound apologetic. He wasn’t actually going to apologize, though. “Grab a cookie. They’re pumpkin flavored.”

“You’re weird.”

That was all Jihoon cared to say, but he didn’t move from the spot.

“I’m not,” insisted the elder.

“Well, who else gives out toothpaste for Halloween?”

“That wasn’t- Alright, just forget about it.”

“About the coming inside part?”

“Um, no? I mean Jeonghan already left, but Josh and I are still watching… Oh, I guess that’s not children-appropriate. Anyway, I think we were off to a bad start.”

“And this Josh is the one you want to end up wrapped in toilet paper?”

“Definitely.”

Jihoon was his old self right away, commanding the group of one-digit-agers with the tone of a man who takes no s***.

“You heard Scoops. There’s a ginger inside who’s waiting for your attack.”

Seungcheol yelled after the tiny army. “There are cookies on the table. Leave some for me, though.”

In the end, Jihoon took the first step into the houses direction. They walked in silence, slower than necessary, both glad to be out of the children’s noise range for a moment. Joshua’s screams could be heard from outside just fine.

For the first time since reading Jeonghan’s note, Seungcheol smiled again.

It was surprisingly easy for Joshua to get his attackers under control and before long they took turns racing him through Bowser’s Castle.

Jihoon joined the house owner at the other end of the room, where they just kind of stood there. At least it wasn’t awkwardly quiet.

“I see the pirate got his bird back.” Seungcheol tried to break the ice.

“Thanks to you, I suppose. Look, Scoops-“

“That’s not my name. I don’t know if you actually think it is or what Jeonghan texted you but he just made that up.”

“Oh, well it suits you.”

“How so?”

“I dunno. It just does.”

“Your hair looks kind of like ice cream.”

“Huh?”

Seungcheol wanted to slap himself for this total none sequitur. It made sense to him, since ice cream came in scoops after all.

“Strawberry, I mean,” he tried to correct himself. “Strawberry flavored ice cream.”

That still didn’t sound more coherent.

How odd that he was so nervous again. He had been like that around Jeonghan because gorgeous boys did that to him, but now… he was almost giggly. What was it about this pink mopped guy?

A pumpkin shattered on the floor.

Jihoon’s attention went to the rascals who had grown bored and left Joshua’s control. After yelling at the children, using slightly fewer bad words than before, Jihoon ushered them to the door. He sent them out on the street and turned around again.

“I never got your name.”

“Seungcheol.”

“Seems I have to go. Can’t stay long in one place or that bunch goes berserk. Sorry about earlier. And sorry about now.”

“It’s fine. It’s just paper. I can pick that up. Part of the holiday spirit, I suppose.”

“Nah, just wait a second.”

Jihoon shouted four names and told them to clean up the mess they had made. Astonishingly the children complied without hesitation. For someone so easily overlooked the boy had power in his voice.

Seungcheol looked on as his garden was restored to its former glory. Jihoon in the meantime was fiddling with the four candy stuffed bags.

There were a few things Seungcheol would have liked to say, but nothing seemed appropriate that very moment.

“Thanks,” he tried, “For cleaning up. And, I guess, for making the night less terrible.”

“Was it that bad before?”

“You have no idea.”

Finished rummaging, Jihoon took out a bar of chocolate. Why had he been looking for this one for a good minute?

The boy pressed the bar into Seungcheol’s hand. “Here, have this. I thought about giving you back your toothpaste but I can actually use that, especially after all that candy. And it wouldn’t have fit on there.”

“What wouldn’t have fit? I don’t really need any choc-“

But apparently Jihoon was unwilling to discuss or even acknowledge the subject as he dashed away, hurrying the kids along. “Bye,” he shouted.

Seungcheol waved until the boy turned away and eventually he looked down at the unexpected gift. Comprehension dawned on his face.

The hastily scribbled note said:

 

_Was a lot nicer meeting you the second time around._

_Have a great night._

_-Strawberry Ice Cream Haired Boy_

 

Below was a number. Jihoon’s phone number.

Why he felt so fuzzy all of the sudden, Seungcheol couldn’t say. But he felt it. And he felt it deeply.

After spending an embarrassing amount of time staring at the night sky as if he expected Jihoon to came running back, he turned around to see Joshua occupied inside the house. To his credit, the orange haired boy had diligently cleaned up the broken pumpkin.

Regardless, he had another thing coming.

Seungcheol picked up the last roll of toilet paper still on the ground at his front entrance. Josh’s next costume would be a mummy, whether he liked it or not.

After carefully folding Jihoon’s note and tugging it in his pocket, Seungcheol began his attack.

“Hey Joshie, Happy Halloween!”

 

=== THE END ===


End file.
